1895. J ' ' [Brintou. 



Prof. Hilprecht, of the Niffer expedition, brought from the 

 Lebanon range a, collection of roughl^^ chipped stones, but I am 

 convinced, after examining them carefully', that they are not 

 completed implements, but " quarr}^ rejects," such as have often 

 been mistaken for pahBoliths, or else undeveloped forms. 



In the oldest strata of Hissarlik no signs of a " rough stone " 

 a'ge were discovered.* In the caves of the Libanus range ex- 

 amined by Lartet, the oldest remains of man's industry in stone 

 were associated with pottery and the bones of living species 

 of animals. f Later cave exploration, when properly conducted, 

 has everywhere in western Asia repeated this story. Only when 

 the strata have been manifestly remanie hy nature or man have 

 stone implements been found in juxtaposition to the bones of 

 extinct species. 



In none of these deposits have human remains been exhumed 

 presenting the low and presumably very ancient types of the 

 " neanderthaloid " man, or the " pithecanthropus." 



The megalithic monuments, the dolmens and menhirs of S^-ria 

 and Palestine also contain pottery and belong distinctly to the 

 polished stone period, if not to that of early metals. They 

 have been attributed to some prehistoric, non-Semitic people ; 

 but the fact that Palgrave and Dr. d'Elyseff found just such 

 monuments in Arabia removes the foundation for such an asser- 

 tion, and assigns them to early Semitic hordes. | 



This is consistent with the Egyptian portraitures, which rep- 

 resent all the inhabitants of Sj-ria (except the Hittites) with 

 pure Semitic features. § 



The conclusion from the above facts is, that from the testimony 

 so far presented, western Asia, instead of being the birthplace 

 of the human species, as has generally been supposed, was, in 

 fact, comparatively lately occupied by man. 



* Verhand. der Berliner Anthrop. GeselL, Bd. xi, s. 275. 



t Lartet, Voyage d' Exploration d la Mer Morte, pp. 215, !<qq. The latest scientific explorer 

 of the caves of Palestine is Dr. Alexandre d'Elj'seflf His full text has not yet appeared, 

 but an abstract was published in the Ball. delaSoc. d'Anthropologie, Paris, 189i, p. 217. 



I Lartet, Exploration, etc., p. 238. He gives interesting sketches of a number of these 

 monuments. They were doubtless sepulchral. Hoernes refers them to the " earliest age 

 of metals;" Die Urgeschichte dei Menschen, p. 402 (Vienna, 1892). Dr. d'Elyseff {uhi 

 suprd) assigns those in northern Arabia to the neolithic period. Their builders knew 

 the ass and camel, but vv^ere anthropophagous. 



i W. Max Miiller, Asien und Europa nach altegyptischen Inschriften, p. 229. 



